With one CD of prime Smokey and the Miracles rarities already available, how much could this entry in Motown's Lost and Found vault-sweep series really offer? Plenty, as it turns out. While a couple of tracks ("You've Got to Pay Bills," "(I Need Some) Money," the latter a different song than the Barrett Strong-Beatles standard) seem like dry runs at ideas better realized by others at the label, Along Came Love brings some true pleasures to light. A particular standout is the sweet, early "I Love Your Baby," and after a couple of plays, even their version of "If I Were a Bell" transcends typical Motown supper-club fare and becomes charming. More than just a lesson in secret history, this is actually a fine addition to the collections of fans of the group and the label. --Rickey Wright
Lost and Found: Along Came Love (1958-1964),Smokey Robinson & the Miracles,Universal,Motown,Pop,R&B,Soul,Soul/R & B,Soul/Reggae/Rhythm & Blues
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Lost and Found: Along Came Love (1958-1964)
Smokey Robinson & the Miracles Manufacturer: Umvd Labels ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD  Classic R&B
| R&B
| Styles
| Music
General
| R&B
| Styles
| Music
Motown
| R&B
| Styles
| Music
General
| Soul
| R&B
| Styles
| Music
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ASIN: B00001QGU3 Release Date: 1999-09-28 |
Tracks:
- I Think We Can Make It
- I Love Your Baby
- My Mama Done Told Me
- Along Came Love
- Come To Me
- You've Got To Pay Bills
- (I Need Some) Money
- Would I Love You
- If I Were A Bell
- Easy Street
- Don't Think It's Me
- I Like It Like That
- (Talking 'Bout) Nobody But My Baby
- Yes, No, Maybe So
- Mr. Misery (Let Me Be)
- Don't Say Bye-Bye
- I Need A Change
- I Need Somebody
- Please Say You Love Me
- Shop Around
Amazon.com
With one CD of prime Smokey and the Miracles rarities already available, how much could this entry in Motown's Lost and Found vault-sweep series really offer? Plenty, as it turns out. While a couple of tracks ("You've Got to Pay Bills," "(I Need Some) Money," the latter a different song than the Barrett Strong-Beatles standard) seem like dry runs at ideas better realized by others at the label, Along Came Love brings some true pleasures to light. A particular standout is the sweet, early "I Love Your Baby," and after a couple of plays, even their version of "If I Were a Bell" transcends typical Motown supper-club fare and becomes charming. More than just a lesson in secret history, this is actually a fine addition to the collections of fans of the group and the label. --Rickey WrightCustomer Reviews:
Recovered from the vaults.......2007-06-25
Thankfully, a great deal of this material has subsequently been made available. There have been artists' retrospectives and anthologies with previously unreleased tracks, collections of newly recovered masters such as A Cellarful Of Motown, and collected unreleased masters by specific artists such as this first rate Lost And Found series. This has so far included Marvin Gaye, the Four Tops, the Temptations and the Miracles on the Motown label.
The Miracles' Along Came Love features recordings from 1957 to 1964 and unusually includes seven tracks that did come out, but which had been long unavailable, all but one drawn from the 1965 US double-album The Miracles Greatest Hits From The Beginning. Some of these have since reappeared on The Complete Motown Singles, Vol. 1: 1959-1961 box set and later Volumes.
The Miracles' association with Motown boss Berry Gordy predates Motown itself, having begun when they were still a doo-wop outfit recently known as the Matadors. Later Smokey was to become Berry Gordy's vice president and right-hand man at Motown: chef, main writer, producer and lead singer in the Miracles, but he began writing songs with Berry Gordy (who had already written songs for Jackie Wilson, Bobby Parker and others) almost as soon as they met in 1957.
Berry Gordy was involved in co-writing and/or producing all the early Miracles' singles, which were recorded, before the Hitsville Studio was established, in hired studios such as United Sound in Detroit and Olmstead Sound in New York, and released on small labels like Fury and End. Three of these raw sounding B-sides (but not their A-sides) are included here - My Mama Done Told Me; (I Need Some) Money and I Love Your Baby - plus an A-side that was licensed to Chess in late 1959, because of its better distribution channels, I Need A Change.
Another early Tamla B-side, issued as by Ron and Bill (Ronnie White and Bill "Smokey" Robinson), was modelled on the Everly Brothers in the hope of a hit. Don't Say Bye-Bye was not taken from Greatest Hits From The Beginning, but was the B-side of It in 1959.
The other two tracks from the compilation From The Beginning were the 1964 non-album B-side Would I Love You (also on Early Classics), a luscious ballad with sweeping strings, recorded in Chicago, and the atmospheric non-album single I Like It Like That, the only stereo recording on this CD. This stereo mix made its debut on From The Beginning and had a different lead vocal to the one on the single, as most easily identified by a falsetto "please" twenty-five seconds into the stereo mix. Newer longer stereo mixes of both these tracks can be found on Ooo Baby Baby: The Anthology.
That leaves the previously unreleased material, beginning with the confidently soulful I Think We Can Make It. It seems unlikely that something this strong would be shelved, but it was recorded the very same day as You've Really Got A Hold On Me, and even that was only thought worthy of a B-side release. The title track Along Came Love is a ballad that shows their doo-wop roots, and was probably considered for Cookin' With The Miracles. Marv Johnson's Come To Me was the first release on Tamla, recorded in December 1958, and the Miracles' more upbeat reworking comes from December 1959, during their Chess period. You've Got To Pay Bills, a song about placating the landlady, and Don't Think It's Me, were both recorded on 11 June 1964, but Smokey returned to Don't Think It's Me for a bigger production on the Make It Happen album in 1967 (Make It Happen/Special Occasion), when Earl Van Dyke's tentative organ fills were replaced by full on strings.
If I Were A Bell (from Guys And Dolls), with second lead vocals from Claudette Rogers Robinson, and Easy Street, which has impressive Four Freshmen-style harmonies, were planned for an abandoned album of standards to be called The Miracles Sing Modern in 1962. It shows their versatility but isn't what I listen to the Miracles for. (Talkin' Bout) Nobody But My Baby definitely is though. It uses the same backing track prepared by Norman Whitfield for the Temptations, who added vocals on the same day as the Miracles, but it was the Temptations' version that was chosen over a year later in 1964 and came out on the back of My Girl (ironically a song that Smokey had written, about his wife Claudette), while Smokey's gospelly lead was consigned to history. Claudette gets a rare lead vocal on the excellent Mr Misery from 1962, the same year as Yes, No, Maybe So, which is a cover of Barrett Strong's 1960 single, written by Smokey and Berry.
I Need Somebody is a James Brownish blues, another recorded in Chicago for the strings, probably arranged by Riley Hampton; and Please Say You Love Me is a Smokey Robinson/Janie Bradford song, a begging soul-blues production, with what sounds like Earl Van Dyke on organ and Marv Tarplin guitar, but no details as to date, line-up or producer are given.
The album closes appropriately, as it was Motown's first million seller, with a live recording of Shop Around, backed by Richard "Popcorn" Wylie's band, from a road show appearance in Cincinatti a few months after the single came out. It was the climax of the show and the Miracles were joined onstage by a chorus including Mary Wells and Singin' Sammy Ward, the Contours and Chuck Jackson, with Smokey's voice all but shot by the end of a fervent performance.
Nothing here deserved to be abandoned and forgotten and Motown are to be applauded for bringing them back into circulation for our appraisal and enjoyment.
From humble beginnings..........2003-06-30
More from the world greatest living poet...........2003-04-26
Perfect for a little dinner party!.......2000-08-19
More gems from the Miracles vault........2000-05-12
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